Lillie Harris

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Lillie Harris (born 1994)[1] is a contemporary British composer, copyist and engraver. Born in Canterbury, she is now based in south-east London.[2][3]

Biography[edit]

Harris was a student of Haris Kittos at the Royal College of Music, graduating in 2016.[1]

She has an interest in Baroque instruments, and in 2013 was a finalist in the National Centre for Early Music's Composer Competition, writing her The Dahomey Amazons Take a Tea Break for Florilegium.[4] She writes of the piece:

I had written a fusion piece, melding a Baroque-style melody with the Adzogbo rhythm common across many African cultures; the percussive, 'spitty' and unusual sounds ended up being my favourite, as the particularly human, vocal quality of the recorder and the richer, brighter tone of the Baroque cello had a cohesiveness that I probably would not have felt had the ensemble been on modern cello and flute, for example. The piece was a fun experiment that left me eager to go further.[5]

Her 2016 work, remiscipate, reflecting the demolition of Glasgow's Red Road Flats, was commissioned and premiered by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra,[6][7] and described as an "evocation of a crumbling building, through moaning trombones and tremolo strings, as well as the bleak aftermath of dust and silence."[8] In the same year, she wrote her solo viola work, AND, for violist Katherine Wren, who subsequently performed the work in her Nordic tour of the Shetland Islands,[9] at Soundfestival Aberdeen[10] and at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall as part of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's chamber music series.

Her work, Vitreous was written for the pianist Ben Powell as part of the Psappha Composing for Piano project.[11]

In 2017, she was appointed a place on the London Symphony Orchestra's SoundHub programme, and commissioned her piece My Last Duchess, based on the poem by Robert Browning.[12] That year, she was also offered a place on the London Philharmonic's Young Composers Scheme, during which she worked with the composer and conductor James MacMillan.[13]

Harris won the Tenso Young Composers Award in 2017.[14]

She has also written reviews and articles for Revoice Magazine,[15][5] and maintains her own blog, The Green Copyist, on printing and preparing music sustainably.[16]

Selected works[edit]

  • My Last Duchess (2018) - clarinets, viola, percussion, electronic tape and poem extracts triggered by audience participation
  • Recall (2018) - large ensemble
  • Elsewhen (2017) - sextet
  • Vernichtung-Frage-Schrei (2016–17) - a capella voices
  • vitreous (2016–17) - piano
  • AND (2016) - viola
  • wavelet (2016) - mixed ensemble
  • remiscipate (2015–16) - orchestra
  • Chrysalis (2015) - harp, live electronics, tape
  • Red (2015–16) - sinfonietta
  • In the Company of Nightingales (2015) - large mixed ensemble and solo baritone
  • Dormientes Bestia (2014–15) - solo great bass paetzoid and electronics
  • Qinah (2014) for SSATB voices
  • The Dahomey Amazons Take a Tea Break (2013) - recorder, Baroque violin and cello, and harpsichord
  • Lola on the Beach (2012) - cello
  • Nineteen-to-Twenty-Hundred AD (2011) - strings, piano and HighC electronics

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Lillie Harris". From Poetry to Music. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  2. ^ "Composing". Lillie Harris. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  3. ^ "Lillie Harris". IMDb. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  4. ^ Campbell, Andy. "NCEM - The National Centre for Early Music - NCEM Composers Award 2013 with Florilegium". www.ncem.co.uk. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  5. ^ a b "LILLIE HARRIS - Old Wood, New Music". Revoice! Magazine. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  6. ^ "Lillie Harris wins chance to have RSNO perform her music - Rhinegold". Rhinegold. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  7. ^ "Young composer in Season Finale". RSNO. 26 April 2016. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
  8. ^ "Classical review: RSNO, Usher Hall, Edinburgh". Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  9. ^ "About Nordic Viola". nordicviola. 25 February 2016. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  10. ^ "SOUND: NORDIC VIOLA". www.aberdeenperformingarts.com. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  11. ^ "Past Schemes | Psappha". Psappha. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  12. ^ "London Symphony Orchestra - LSO Soundhub Showcase: Phase I". lso.co.uk. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  13. ^ Atkinson, Alison. "Meet the LPO Young Composers | Education". www.lpo.org.uk. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  14. ^ "Tenso Young Composers Award 2017 - Lillie Harris - Tenso". Tenso. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  15. ^ "'Whatever I had been expecting, it wasn't that': The English Concert reviewed". Revoice! Magazine. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  16. ^ "The Green Copyist". The Green Copyist. Retrieved 2 September 2018.

External links[edit]